The chairman of a passenger travel association fears the loss of Southport’s rail connection to south Manchester will affect hundreds of commuters.

In December the Government announced that the Northern rail franchise will be operated by Arriva Rail North, and that the TransPennine Express franchise will be delivered by First Trans Pennine Express from April 2016 until 2025 and 2023 respectively.

It is envisaged that Southport will keep its connections to Victoria station but lose its links to Deansgate, Oxford Road, Piccadilly and Manchester Airport.

Alan Fantom, chairman of Ormskirk, Preston and Southport travellers’ association, told Visiter.co.uk that hundreds of Southport people who commute to Manchester will be forced to change their jobs or move from the town.

He said: “Based on passenger counts and surveys it is known that every weekday 1000 people board one of the commuter services from a station to the west of Wigan. Over 70% will take the train all the way to Manchester alighting at one of the five stations that part encircle the city centre. Two thirds of them use Deansgate, Oxford Rd and Piccadilly stations on the southern side to access their place of work. And many more will use the service in both directions throughout the day for business, education and leisure.

“It has been stated that we will lose this line under current plans for the new franchise.

“Some travellers have already said they will need to change jobs or move if this happens. Those living in Southport are contributing to the gross domestic product of the town and many of those along the line are every week supporting our visitor economy spending a good proportion of their disposable incomes here.

“If a town lost several hundred jobs it would be a national news item, effectively this is what will happen.”

John Pugh MP and Southport Rail Transport Forum have both expressed concern about the loss of the town’s connection to Manchester Piccadilly.

Eric Woodcock from SRTF said that hundreds of Southport commuters will have to change trains every day, which will be time consuming and stressful.He argued that Victoria Station was on the northern edge of Manchester city centre, whereas most commuters worked in the vicinity of Deansgate, Oxford Road and Picadilly.

However, Enda Rylands ,manager of Southport’s Ramada hotel, said that Victoria station was now a multi-million pound transport hub which offered connections to west Yorkshire.

Alan added: “We should consider the economic potential from wider and more connections, and whether the situation will improve or worsen for Southport.

“There will eventually be more services coming through Victoria station but very little overall increase in the number of connections that can made from Manchester. The promise of a direct service to Leeds or Bradford is not for a ‘Northern Connect’ express service as is enjoyed by Barrow and Blackpool but an existing diesel unit stopping at all stations with a journey time of almost three hours.

“Piccadilly will always remain the only true mainline station that will offer services to all points including London and the South. It is the only station where, presently, travellers from and to Southport can make direct connections with express services and not have to cross a city or town centre.

"How do we move forward and not lose out so badly? This is being presented to us as some kind of trade-off which it does not have to be and we should not accept.

“There has been a very strong passenger response to our ‘make your voice heard’ campaign and for any reader wishing to do so or just know more, it is very easy to do by visiting www.opsta.org, the facebook page southportrailtransportforum, email to opstasurveys@gmail.com or call 07792 208203.